The film is (intentionally) ugly and crude: the most popular TV show on The Violence Channel is called “Ow! My Balls!” and yes, it consists of a guy doing repeated damage to his nuts. Judge is an equal-opportunity offender: corporate greed turns out to be behind the crop failures and dust bowls that are ravaging the planet, because farmers are irrigating their crops with a Gatorade-like substance rather than water.  

Why is the liquid so popular? Its manufacturer had the foresight to buy both the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission in the 2300s, and now everyone is convinced that the substance is “what plants crave,” when in actuality it’s killing them along with all other life on the planet.

In a case of life imitating satirical art, Idiocracy, which was in theaters very briefly last year and is already out on DVD, was a box-office failure. Its distributor, Twentieth-Century Fox, gave it almost no marketing support. Either the studio’s suits are emissaries from the idiotic future, or they are smarter than they seem. They may have realized that Idiocracy’s satire is so unrelenting that it may be too much of a good thing: smart people won’t like to be reminded that they live in a world where they’re a shrinking minority, and stupid people are likely to feel insulted.  

Judge predicts that the Fox News Channel is still going strong in 2505, providing the same unbiased reporting and respect for facts that it always has - another nail in the film’s corporate coffin.

Fortunately, Idiocracy is likely to have the same fate as Judge’s 1999 Office Space, a brilliant satire of corporate life that has become a cult classic. All the performers (many of whom were in the earlier film) are pitch-perfect at playing idiots, slobs, droolers, nose-pickers, pumped-up bullies, and consumerist drones.

So which is scarier? Pan’s Labyrinth is a creepier film. Idiocracy is a stealth bomb of subversive ideas.  

Both are likely to give you nightmares.